Much that is commonly accepted about slavery and religion in the Old South is challenged in this significant book. The eight essays included here show that throughout the antebellum period, southern whites and blacks worshipped together, heard the same sermons, took communion and were baptized together, were subject to the same church discipline, and were buried in the same cemeteries. What was the black perception of white-controlled religious ceremonies? How did whites reconcile their faith with their racism? Why did freedmen, as soon as possible after the Civil War, withdraw from the biracial churches and establish black denominations? This book is essential reading for historians of religion, the South, and the Afro-American experience.

Planters and Slaves in the Great Awakening
Biracial Fellowship in Antebellum Baptist Churches
Religion in Amite County, Mississippi, 1800-1861
Black and White Christians in Florida, 1822-1861
Planters and Slave Religion in the Deep South
Slaves and Southern Catholicism
Slaves and White Churches in Confederate Georgia
After Apocalypse, Moses